Donny Chartier

Agent
Philleo Agency Insurance, Inc.
Brookfield, Wisconsin

How did you get started at your agency?

A friend who started out with me in the late ’70s went on to start an insurance company that only insured hotels. In 2007, he gave me a call and said, “I’m tired, I’m 89 years old, I’m going to retire.” He sold me his agency and I took it from there.

Why hotel/motel insurance?

It’s a very specialized market, and hotel and motel owners need very specialized coverage. We found that agents who normally cover things like hardware stores and apartment buildings would go into a motel or a hotel and write the policy with a standard business owners policy, failing to offer the proper coverages. We found it to be an area we could specialize in and really pay attention to the coverages hotel and motel owners need.

Biggest hotel/motel insurance challenges?

There are three main areas of concerns with hotels: the roof, slips and falls, and employment practices liability claims.

Roof claims are the most horrendous. It’s important to pay attention because insurance companies are adding a separate roof deductible, which applies in the same way as a wind/hail deductible. The deductible, often around 2%, isn’t based on the cost of the loss—it’s based on the building value. So if you have a $3-million hotel, you’re looking at a much bigger deductible. A lot of these smaller hotels can’t afford a big hit.

Biggest hotel/motel insurance changes?

In 2007, almost every insurance company would write almost any hotel. Now, standard insurance companies will not write a hotel that is not franchised. They view the franchisee-franchiser relationship as a protector that makes sure everything is up to standards.

Also, older hotels without sprinkler systems are becoming a big issue. We’re seeing that anyone can get coverage if they want to go with actual cash value coverage, but there are very few companies that will write hotels without sprinklers that are 30 years old on replacement cost.

Hotel/motel advice for a fellow agent?

We do not write any hotel policies without EPLI. To do so is basically criminal in my opinion. Right now, it’s the most important coverage a hotel owner can have for two reasons: sexual harassment and age discrimination, for one, but what a lot of people don’t realize is that EPLI also covers them if someone comes in and they sue because they aren’t satisfied that the hotel has the proper disability equipment.

Also, in the hotel business, my phone number is active 24/7. You need to do that. Hotel owners aren’t going to have a claim at 2 p.m.—they’re going to have a claim a 3 a.m.

Favorite success story?

I guess my biggest achievement is that I’ve been in this business since 1979 and I’ve never had to tell a customer they’re not covered. I’m in my early 60s now, and my goal is that until I retire, I don’t have to say that to a customer.

Will Jones is IA assistant editor.